End of Little Tokyo Two

I am going to keep this short because by now, the background and story of Little Tokyo Two going into voluntary liquidation has become widely known and covered. I am, of course, affected because I joined Little Tokyo Two back in January. Admittedly, I was less interested in the co-working side and more interested in the incubation services, introduction to relevant parties and support with growing my business. It was why I choose Little Tokyo Two over Fishburners and River City Labs.

Jock did get me four leads for customers. But unfortunately, I wasn’t able to convert any of them into sales. The most use I ended-up making of my membership with Little Tokyo Two was through the use of their three boardrooms for meetings. But I was beginning to make plans with Little Tokyo Two support staff to put together a workshop, plus looking to get on relevant podcasts when the news hit. I am disappointed but not surprised because, in hindsight, the writing was on the wall.

So what’s been happening? My membership was transferred to Brisbane Marketing, who are a branch of the Brisbane City Council. The Council has assured me that my membership will continue for the time being as normal. Fishburners has stepped up to provide community support services. Also, Office Hub has contacted me trying to sign me with their service to help with my move away from Little Tokyo Two.

Honestly, I am happy to go with the flow for the time being. I am still using the meeting rooms. So I’ll keep my membership going for now. My initial contract was until the end of June. So let’s see if I get to the end of my contract or if I bail out by May!

February In Review: What have I been doing!

February might be the shortest month of the year, but February 2019 felt like a whole year to me! My life is noticeably different then it was on February 1st, and I don’t just mean because of the passage of time! So what’s been happening?

MIT Bootcamp

I am sure people are sick of hearing me talk about it. But the week I spent at the camp was an intense experience. I certainly feel like I packed a few months worth of learning into a long, 18+ hour week. I am glad I took the opportunity offered to me. It was a blast!

I am now slowly but surely trying to revive Virgo 19 using the 24 steps. I am in the middle of generating 108 ideas. I am in no hurry, and that’s good because I want to do this right!

Abide Gets Into Impact Boom Elevate+

As soon as the MIT Bootcamp ended, I got the opportunity to apply what I learnt in the context of Abide and the Impact Boom Elevate+ social enterprise accelerator. Our paired mentor for the program, Tobias Speck of PWC, is a more on the lean startup side but that’s okay. We are not a methodology purist, and we know we have to show results within a short period. So we will use whatever methodology we need to get our startup going. But my co-founder and CEO, Andy Smith, is finding the Disciplined Entrepreneurship as insightful as I do!

JOSARI Gearing-up to apply to Collider

I will write a post explaining JOSARI, it’s a video based micro-consulting platform, and my involvement with them soon! But for now, I am excited to be working with them to apply for the Collider accelerator. Watch this space for updates!

Not continuing with Your Happy Place

Not everything that happened in February was positive through addition. I have posted about Your Happy Place a couple of times before, the first post being in November. My contract with them was to get an MVP of the people, personality and places concept out in a usable format. I was successful in achieving this goal: Your Happy Place the app, is available for download from Google Play Store. However, Your Happy Place is not the right fit for me going forward. But the concept remains as viable and interesting as ever. I hope to see Your Happy Place be a resounding success as it goes on. However, from my point of view, I think this is positive through subtraction for both myself and Your Happy Place.

Hospitals, hospitals and more Hospitals!

To finish off this update on a more personal note. I physically crashed badly after returning from the MIT Bootcamp. I later found out this is because my blood iron had dropped to dangerous levels again. I am getting an iron infusion this coming Sunday, and my doctor thinks after the infusion I should be able to relax for the next six months.

In addition to my health woes, my poor niece also suffered. She came down to Brisbane from Townsville for what was supposed to be a week-long vacation. However, she ended up staying for two weeks, with the last week hospitalised from a mysterious virus. She got out less than 24 hours ago, but she has mended enough to be back to her happy self. So I am glad we are leaving the medical drama behind in February and starting March on a fresh note all around!

Abide part of Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort for 2019!

The last time I spoke about the inter-generational cooperation platform I am working on with my co-founder and CEO, Andy Smith, our startup was still called Koostoo. But the name didn’t play well with audiences. So we have renamed the startup Abide, we even have a website now!

Abide took a big and important step this year by being accepted into the Impact Boom Elevate+ social enterprise accelerator. Elevate+ is funded by the Brisbane City Council, and we were selected from a competitive field of startups draws from across Brisbane City.

Brisbane City Council is the largest local government in Australia because way back when, we merged a lot of small town councils into one super council. We do this a lot in Queensland.

So while a city like Sydney is bigger then Brisbane, they don’t have one big city council that covers the entire city. What that means is that Brisbane City Council can do a lot more then the other city councils. So they have a economic development unit that supports initiative like Elevate+.

Andy, Tom and I, at the Impact Boom Elevate+ cohort 2019 welcome event

The Elevate+ cohort for 2019 was announced last Tuesday, the 5th of February, and even though I was in the middle of the MIT Bootcamp, I was able to take some time to make an appearance at the Brisbane Social Enterprise Drinks & Networking, meet Tom Allen, the CEO of Impact Boom, in person. Before rushing off to the MIT Bootcamp networking event. It was a very busy night.

Getting accepted into Elevate+ was very important for Andy and me because we are both working on sweat equity for now. So it would be very easy for us to let Abide slip by the wayside. But now we have a target to work towards because the graduating cohort of Elevate+ gets to pitch in front of the Lord Mayor, and other at The Triffid on the 6th of June. Along the way, we have a set time during the week where we get to take time and work on the startup.

The first session took place the Tuesday just past, the 12th of February, at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, South Bank Campus. The first module that goes with the session is also now available online to complete. I am looking forward to using this opportunity to develop Abide further, making something of an idea that enjoyed strong support from QUT, which has to date put in $3,000 in seed funding, and the community at large!

Two Weeks in Little Tokyo Two!

As part of my business development strategy for Start with Tinni, I wanted to get membership of a co-working space. I thought it would be an excellent way to have space away from my home where I could focus better and meet clients. I also wanted the opportunity to offer my services to the community of the co-working space and get some clients that way. I took a tour of all the major players, but in the end, I felt that Little Tokyo Two offered just a bit more for a comparable price.

I look their Starting Stage Plan, which includes monthly business workshops, advisory services, frameworks and accountability. I think I can benefit a lot from something more structured, and in the end, that’s what sealed the deal!

Technically, my membership started 1st of January, but since the staff wasn’t back until the 7th, I waited until then to pick up my key card. I used the space for the first time on the 10th catch-up with Nigel, on Your Happy Place business. I had my first meeting with Jock Fairweather, the founder of Little Tokyo Two, on Monday. I’ll be back there next week, and I hope to work at least 2-3 from The Capital!

Personality and Place: Your Happy Place App

We know that our environment has a significant impact on our mood. But how aware are you of how the place you are in effects your mood? Also, are we designing for all personality types or only a subset who tend to be over-represented on urban planning boards? There are the questions Dr Nigel Cartlidge of Griffith University explores in his research. We teamed up back in July to turn his research into an app that’s usable and downloadable by all, which is where the Your Happy Place App comes in to play.

Currently available on Expo.io as a working demonstration of the concept. Nigel will be presenting the app and the broader plan for it at The International Urban Design Conference taking place right now in Sydney.

The idea has a two-sided market. One side of the market is everyone interested in emotional and wellness tracking and analysis. Ideally, users will use the app every day to record their emotions, taking into account the place they are in, and the app will provide feedback to them. The other side of the market is the urban design and planning community, who could use the data to better design and build urban spaces.

The ideas are still developing, and it’s all currently bootstrapped by Nigel, and his wife, Janet. I am on board as CTO and chief developer. Hopefully, we can drum up enough interest to start raising some seed funding. The website for the business side of things is Personality and Place. I cannot be at the conference, but I am sure Nigel is doing very well!